Top U.S. General Says He’s Open to Using Ground Troops to Retake Mosul

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s top military adviser said Thursday that he would consider deploying a limited number of United States forces to accompany Iraqi troops on complex offensive operations to retake Mosul and other areas under control of Sunni militants.

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that Iraqi troops — who initially fled under the onslaught of Islamic State militants — are now doing a better job of standing and fighting. But he added that he could not foreclose the possibility that as operations against the Sunni militants move into more complex phases of clearing out cities and other areas by the Islamic State, American troops might have to help their Iraqi counterparts.

“I’m not predicting at this point that I would recommend that those forces in Mosul and along the border would need to be accompanied by U.S. forces, but we’re certainly considering it,” General Dempsey said. Defense officials said that American Joint Tactical Attack Controllers could be used to call in airstrikes from tactical positions on the ground, most likely behind Iraqi forces. The tactical attack controllers often deploy in positions like hills and other high terrain so they can see operations and call in strikes.

General Dempsey did say that he did not anticipate expanding the American military presence in Iraq beyond what he called a modest force. “I just don’t foresee a circumstance when it would be in our interest to take this fight on ourselves with a large military contingent,” he said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who appeared with General Dempsey before the House committee, said he believed that American airstrikes had been “striking a blow” against the Islamic State. Yet his comments came on the same day that the leader of the Islamic State dispelled reports that he had been seriously injured or killed and issued a new call to arms in a 17-minute speech in which he belittled Mr. Obama’s plan to send more soldiers to Iraq and urged disciples to “erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere.”

An audio recording of the speech by the leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was distributed online, accompanied by Arabic, English and Russian transcripts provided by the group. It was first reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors jihadi communications online.

Mr. Baghdadi’s speech appeared to end days of rumors over his fate after the American-led coalition carried out an airstrike Saturday in northwestern Iraq.

It was not clear precisely when the tape was made, but it alluded to an event that took place on Monday, when an Egyptian militant organization pledged its loyalty to the Islamic State.

With characteristic bluster, Mr. Baghdadi exhorted Muslims throughout the Middle East to rise up against “the agents of the Jews and crusaders, their slaves, tails and dogs.” He declared, “We see America and her allies stumbling between fear, weakness, inability and failure.”

His forces have seized large areas of Syria and Iraq, and an American-led coalition is waging a campaign of airstrikes against them. Last Friday, Mr. Obama announced plans to deploy 1,500 additional soldiers to Iraq, effectively doubling the number assigned as advisers to help the Iraqi Army beat back the militants.

Mr. Baghdadi scoffed at that plan. “Here is Obama, who has ordered the deployment of 1,500 additional soldiers under the claim that they are advisers because the crusaders’ airstrikes and constant bombardment — day and night — upon the position of the Islamic State have not prevented its advance, nor weakened its resolve,” he said in the audiotape.

He mocked news reports about the Sunni Arab states that were participating in the American-led campaign against the Islamic State, and especially the heavy publicity about the role of a female fighter pilot from the United Arab Emirates. “The story of their participation in the crusade is just a media farce,” he said.

The Islamic State, in a separate announcement reported by SITE, also reported a plan to mint and circulate its own currency, using gold, silver and copper. It did not explain when the currency would be introduced or other important details, but said that it was meant to liberate users from the “satanic usury-based global economic system.”

The congressional testimony on Thursday underscored the challenge facing Mr. Obama as he continues to insist to a war-weary public that the United States is not returning to ground combat in Iraq. He has maintained that American ground troops will not be used, even as his generals have increasingly hinted that there may not be a way to defeat the Sunni militant group without at least some American forces, particularly to call in airstrikes.

When Iraqi and Kurdish pesh merga fighters worked with American pilots to retake Mosul Dam in August, they used an elaborate three-way system to call in airstrikes from American planes, going through interpreters. While Pentagon officials say the system worked in that case, many military officials also say that a small number of American tactical operators would be needed to call in strikes when it comes time to retake urban areas.

Helene Cooper reported from Washington, David D. Kirkpatrick from Baghdad, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: Top U.S. General Says He’s Open to Using Ground Troops to Retake Mosul. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe